Hot Topics:

Canon City Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic

Pearl Harbor Navy photographer remembers horrors

By Megan MitchellThe Denver Post

Posted:
12/07/2012 05:49:30 PM MST

After the veterans said they were more than ready to go, Brig. Gen. Sal Villano, right, chairman of the Forgotten Heroes Campaign, swears the men in for 20 more years of reserve service. Pearl Harbor veterans from left to right are George Richard, Dave Wilson, Jim Doyle, and Luz Valerio (sitting in wheelchair).The American Legion Post 1 in Denver hosts a Remember Pearl Harbor 71st Anniversary Program on Friday, Dec. 7, 2012, honoring the survivors, their wives, and the widows. (THE DENVER POST | Kathryn Scott Osler)

Jim Doyle spent the first months of World War II flying all over the world with a camera attached to the bottom of his Navy plane, capturing battle sites and bloodshed.

Though it's been 71 years, he recalls Pearl Harbor most vividly.

"There are terrible things I remember about that day," Doyle said, holding an oxygen tube to his nostrils. "One was the terrible smell of the burning oil and dead bodies in the water. I will never forget that."

A pilot and U.S. Navy aerial photographer, Doyle, 89, has never seen the pictures he took of the war — except the ones published in history books, he said. All of them were taken by the Department of Defense to analyze the Japanese attacks in Oahu on Dec. 7, 1941.

Photos: Pearl Harbor

"Immediately, the President wanted to know what the hell was going on," Doyle said. "So we sent the films to Washington, and they used them for years trying to figure out why we weren't better prepared."

Doyle doesn't need the pictures to remember.

"I lay awake at night wondering, 'why did I survive,'" he said. "I think about it every night."

On Friday, Doyle sat in the front row of a small, crowded room at the American Legion on 5400 E. Yale Ave. to be honored for his service and longevity with three other survivors from Pearl Harbor.

"These (survivors) have unparalleled patriotism," said Brigadier General Sal Vilano, who has organized the Pearl Harbor Memorial event for more than 20 years. "We need to rekindle the fervor of Americanism in this country as it was then."

Advertisement

Doyle said he woke up in his hangar on Dec. 7, 1941, from the noise of the surprise attack, which killed more than 2,400. He said he grabbed his camera and ran to document "the horrible thing."

"I didn't talk about it for years; it bothered me too much — it still bothers me," Doyle said.

On July 8, 1942, Doyle was flying over Guadalcanal in the South-Western Pacific, taking pictures, when his plane was shot down by Japanese soldiers.

"I woke up with the top of my head caved in," Doyle said. He spent months in the hospital and was released from the military in 1943.

Doyle grew up in Meeker and moved to Denver after he left the Navy. He attends the Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony every year; despite the pain that talking about it brings him.

"I know now that we should remember the dead and we should honor the great living servicemen," Doyle said firmly, wiping his cheek.